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Flake
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by Flake Mon Aug 12, 2019 12:08 pm

January Games:
Megaman (Switch)
Megaman 2 (Switch)
Megaman 3 (Switch)
Megaman 4 (Switch)
Megaman 5 (Switch)
Megaman 6 (Switch)
Megaman 7 (Switch)
Megaman 8 (Switch)
Megaman 9 (Switch)
Megaman 10 (Switch)
Kirby's Dreamland (Wii)
Time Spinner (PS4)

February Games:

Megaman Legends (PSTV)
The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (PSTV)
Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)

March Games:

Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)
Mario Galaxy (Wii)

April

Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS4)

May

Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope (Switch)
Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (Switch)
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS4)
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (Switch)
Castlevania (Switch)
Dragonball Xenoverse 2 (Switch)
Sonic Forces (Switch)

June

SNK: Heroines (Switch)
Cadence of Hyrule (Switch)
Saint's Row The Third (Switch)
Operation C (Switch)
Secret of Mana Remake (PS4)
The Banner Saga Pt 1 (Switch)

July

Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch)
The World Next Door (Switch)
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid (Switch)

August

Fire Emblem: 3 Houses (Switch)
Final Fight (Switch)
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PS3)

Sorry for the short review on Fire Emblem 3 Houses, Noise! But to be fair, the game is amazing and there's not much more to be said that shouldn't be learned by playing it.

As for Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix ... still one of the best puzzle games, hands-down. Why it is Capcom has done such a disservice to this IP is beyond me. A new, fully-realized console release would be amazing. Still, the HD remix of the original is nothing to sneeze at. The artwork wasn't touched up a lot but the filter they used for the chibi fighters cleans up nicely even on an HD TV that could never have been anticipated back when the artwork was done. The Gems themselves seem to be up-res'd quite a bit.

The gameplay is the same addictive stuff that I used to spend every quarter I could find back during the arcade days - but I must have either improved in skill or the HD Remix releases difficulty is off by a bit because I was able to clear Arcade Hard mode with about half the cast in a sitting. Once with only 2 continues, the closest to a 1CC I've ever had.

I just wish there was a proper sequel.
Maybe now Nintendo will acknowledge Metroid has a fanbase?
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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by BoneSnapDeez Mon Aug 12, 2019 1:20 pm

My man Elkin back with the VNs. Join me in playing Muv Luv. :lol:
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by ElkinFencer10 Mon Aug 12, 2019 3:05 pm

BoneSnapDeez wrote:My man Elkin back with the VNs. Join me in playing Muv Luv. :lol:

I've got a stack of them on Vita that I need to get to! I'm thinking Nurse Love Syndrome might be my next Vita VN, but I've been reading actual books lately, so that diminishes my urge to play VNs a bit.
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.

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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by BoneSnapDeez Mon Aug 12, 2019 8:24 pm

1. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Famicom)
2. Dragon Scroll: Yomigaerishi Maryuu (Famicom)
3. Ninja-kun: Majou no Bouken (Famicom)
4. Hello Kitty World (Famicom)
5. Galaxian (Famicom)
6. Esper Dream 2: Aratanaru Tatakai (Famicom)
7. Ninja Jajamaru-kun (Famicom)
8. Jajamaru no Daibouken (Famicom)
9. Front Line (Famicom)
10. Field Combat (Famicom)
11. Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Famicom)
12. Mississippi Satsujin Jiken: Murder on the Mississippi (Famicom)
13. Space Harrier (Famicom)
14. Geimos (Famicom)
15. Attack Animal Gakuen (Famicom)
16. Sky Destroyer (Famicom)
17. Ripple Island (Famicom)
18. Oishinbo: Kyukyoku no Menu 3bon Syoubu (Famicom)
19. Bird Week (Famicom)
20. Baltron (Famicom)
21. Yie Ar Kung-Fu (Famicom)
22. Challenger (Famicom)
23. Ikki (Famicom)
24. Dough Boy (Famicom)
25. Atlantis no Nazo (Famicom)
26. Bio Senshi Dan: Increaser tono Tatakai (Famicom)
27. Yume Penguin Monogatari (Famicom)
28. King Kong 2: Ikari no Megaton Punch (Famicom)
29. Congo Bongo (Atari 2600)
30. Coconuts (Atari 2600)
31. Arcade Archives: Donkey Kong (Switch eShop)
32. Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu no Hanayome (Super Famicom)
33. Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Super Burger Time (Switch eShop)
34. Fire Fly (Atari 2600)
35. Fire Fighter (Atari 2600)
36. Space Jockey (Atari 2600)
37. Airlock (Atari 2600)
38. Makai Hakkenden Shada (PC Engine)
39. Squeeze Box (Atari 2600)
40. Lagoon (SNES)
41. Atlantis (Atari 2600)
42. Xak III: The Eternal Recurrence (PC Engine CD)
43. Blue Blink (PC Engine)
44. Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys (PC Engine CD)
45. Cally's Caves 3 (Steam)
46. Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet (Steam)
47. Contra (NES)
48. Arcade Archives: Vs. Super Mario Bros. (Switch eShop)
49. Arcade Archives: Moon Cresta (Switch eShop)
50. Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Joe and Mac Caveman Ninja (Switch eShop)
51. Ice Hockey (Atari 2600)

52. Indy 500 (Atari 2600)
53. Video Olympics (Atari 2600)


Indy 500
Image
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When I first played Indy 500, a 1977 launch title for the Atari 2600, I crashed headlong into a wall. Second attempt: same result. Just an utter failure. I popped the cartridge out of the console, prepared to cast it aside forever, when some text on the label caught my eye: Use with Driving Controllers. Oh yes, of course, how silly of me, the driving controllers! I searched my archives, drawers of tangled up knotted controllers and their respective wires, and to my shock and amazement I did indeed happen to possess said device: a single lonely driving controller. I have no recollection of ever obtaining such a thing. I think it walked its way into my house (or perhaps it........... drove).

As its title implies, Indy 500 is a (top-down) racing game, a loose adaptation of an earlier arcade title. It requires the aforementioned driving controllers to play properly. At first glance, these seem virtually identical to the well-known Atari paddles (which were used for Kaboom!, Circus Atari, Warlords, Night Driver, Video Olympics, and many other classics). There are three major differences, however. First, the knob of the driving controllers can be turned indefinitely, while the paddles will eventually stop when pulled to the extreme left or right. Second, driving controllers are singular, while the paddles come tethered together, allowing two to plug into a single jack and making four-player games possible. Third, while the paddles were used for a wide array of Atari legends and obscurities alike, the driving controllers are compatible with Indy 500 and nothing else.
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So, like most other early first-party Atari games, Indy 500 consists of multiple game modes: fourteen to be exact. There are your standard one- and two-player races. Note that there are no AI racers in single-player. Instead, one is left to race against the clock, completing as many laps as possible within a minute's time. Write down your best results, and share them with all your friends! With two players, the first to successfully complete twenty-five laps is declared the winner. On the default racetrack, the controls are quite good! Steering with the driving controller is smooth and fluid, and you really "feel" the acceleration when pushing that lone Atari button. Other tracks don't fair quite as well. One, known as the "devil's elbow," contains too many twists and turns and is just a pain to navigate. Additionally, there are icy tracks (why?!) which are just about as terrible as you'd expect. Can we blame Atari for beginning the trend of inserting "ice stages" into otherwise normal games? I think so. One odd thing about Indy 500 is that if a car is continually pressed against a barrier, it will eventually pass through. A car can even pass through the walls that line the screen's edges, and pop out on the other side of the screen. This is theoretically exploitable, and perhaps playing the game "incorrectly" could yield faster lap times.

In addition to the standard races, there are some bonus modes. These are pretty awesome, the highlights of Indy 500, really. First is a game of tag, for two players, where the "it" car (non-flashing) tries to collide with the "non-it" (flashing) automobile. These matches are contested within a wide-open arena, as opposed to a race course, and crossing from one edge of the screen into the other is encouraged. First player to hit 99(!) points wins. Then there's the "crash n' score" game, where players chase an "item" (a white square) within the arena. Crashing into the square earns a player a single point, first to hit fifty wins. Each time the square is hit, it disappears and teleports to another area of the screen. There is actually a single player variant of crash n' score, too, where once again the antagonist is the sixty second clock.

As an early 2600 title, Indy 500 isn't much to look at. The blocky graphics aren't particularly offensive, but some of the color choices are downright horrendous. Certain game modes actually look more legible if the console is switched into black & white. The car sprites are pretty accurate and surprisingly unambiguous. The sound effects are amazing. In the world of Atari, an automobile accelerating resembles the sounds of churning ocean waves. And the crashing and persistent "beeping" is always fantastic. Overall, Indy 500 shows its age. In the late 70s this must have been amazing. The lack of substantial one-player game modes would have been irrelevant, the whole point was to compete with your siblings and friends. Today, Indy 500 feels more than a bit dated and has been superseded by countless other racing titles (even within the confines of the Atari 2600 library itself). Nevertheless, launch titles are always something I find particularly compelling -- especially those that require their own hardware.


Video Olympics
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Atari box art is amazing. I think that goes without saying. One of my favorite covers belongs to that of the 1977 launch title Video Olympics. Just look at that hockey goalie dead center. He's so stoic and cool, even amid all the chaos and cacophony that surrounds him. Basketball players dunking, a soccer goalie making an epic save, an intense volleyball spike, a smooth tennis volley, even some handball action. Boasting a host of sporting events and 50(!) game modes, Video Olympics promises the ultimate sports experience.

Pop that cart in and...........

Plink. Plink. Plink. It's Pong!!! Yes, indeed, the table tennis arcade classic. I always found it odd that Atari never decided to migrate Pong to its console. Turns out it was just hiding in plain sight, in the form of Video Olympics. Note that Sears later released their own version, bearing the arguably more accurate title of Pong Sports. So, where are the sports? Well, contained within this cartridge is vanilla Pong, some beefed-up modifications of Pong, and a host of very loosely-defined "sports games" that play with Pong-esque controls. It's a whole big mess of stuff, and mostly quite fun.

Amusing, of the 50 gameplay modes offered, only 2 are single-player! These are the first two modes the player encounters, and are basic games of Pong against a computer opponent. First one to reach 21 points wins. Video Olympics uses the paddle controllers, and the controls are nice and fluent. I'm not wild about how small the (in-game) Pong paddles are, though I suppose that adds to the challenge. The two single-player modes are differentiated by the ball's behavior. In mode 1, the player can add speed to the ball by pressing the red button as it makes contact with the paddle. In mode 2, pressing said button adds "whammy" which puts a sharper angle on return hits. This whammy seems to be the AI's undoing, and as a result mode 2 feels significantly easier. Following those all-too-brief single-player excursions comes various two- and four- player games of Pong, some of which see the players controlling multiple paddles.
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Flick the Atari's "game select" switch all the way to 13 to get the first taste of a more familiar sport. Soccer is almost recognizable as the real thing, complete with a bright green field and two goals. In soccer's most basic mode, two players each control two kickers who move in tandem. One is placed near the goal, making it the de facto goalie. It's deceptively entertaining. And shooting for the small goals, as opposed to a single side of the screen, adds a whole new layer of depth. Once again - and this is true of the other sports - the speed and whammy ball attributes can be chosen. Game 18 (still soccer) adds a little wrinkle to the formula, allowing the player to press the button to "hold" the ball briefly. Following a cluster of slightly-different two- and four-player soccer games comes a thing called "Foozpong." This is like a weird variant of foosball, apparently still played on the soccer field, with each player simultaneously controlling two entire columns of kickers. It's almost too chaotic for its own good.

Before Activision gave us Ice Hockey, we had the Video Olympics version. Hockey here plays a bit like soccer, with players shooting for an onscreen goal as opposed to the screen's edge. It's a touch less frantic, with each player only controlling one hockey player by default. In fact, the game feels like a volley between two hockey goalies, which is somewhat amusing. This is the best looking game on the cartridge; that baby blue ice is so soothing. After hockey is a brief trip back to the world of table tennis Pong, with something called "quadrapong." Based on the 1974 arcade game, these two four-player modes showcase four paddles (two moving horizontally, and two vertically) and four goals. It's quite a treat; now to find three friends who enjoy the Atari 2600.

Handball is a strange one, and probably the least enjoyable part of the collection. Players occupy the same side of the screen and the ball bounces within a closed arena. Players are assigned alternating turns, and hitting the ball at the proper time results in a point gained. Beginning with volleyball, the game now adopts a side-view (as opposed to top-down). Here players try to score by launching their balls over the net. The red button now adopts a new function: it activates a jump. It's a little jarring; given the Atari's limited capabilities in those early days, "jumping" causes a paddle sprite to instantly disappear and then reappear higher up onscreen. Basketball is like a more polished volleyball. Players attempt to launch the ball into the opponent's basket, and mode switching will allow for jumping or ball-holding. The ball is allowed to hit the floor, naturally, and the "bounce" physics here are excellent.

This is quite the assortment of games. The inclusion of 50 is undoubtedly excessive. However, there are at least a dozen or so that are rock-solid. Not everyone will enjoy Video Olympics. But I imagine that anyone who enjoys Pong will find plenty to love.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by PartridgeSenpai Tue Aug 13, 2019 4:34 am

Partridge Senpai's 2019 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018
* indicates a repeat

1. Night Slashers (Switch)
2. Bye-Bye BOXBOY! (3DS)
3. GTA4: The Ballad of Gay Tony (Xbox 360)
4. Katamari Forever (PS3)
5. Detention (PS4)
6. Donkey Kong 64 (N64) *
7. OctoDad: Dadliest Catch (PS4) *
8. FlintHook (Switch)
9. God of War (PS4)
10. God of War HD (PS3)
11. Tiny Barbarian DX (Switch)
12. God of War 2 HD (PS3)
13. Starlink (Switch)
14. Shin Gundam Musou (PS3)
15. Battle & Get! Pokemon Typing DS (DS)
16. Banjo-Kazooie (N64) *
17. Super Mario 64: Rumble Edition (N64)
18. Mario Party 3 (N64) *
19. Paper Mario (N64) *
20. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) *
21. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (GBC) *
22. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (GBC) *
23. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC) *
24. Yoshi's Island (SNES) *
25. Super Mario World (SNES) *
26. Super Mario RPG (SFC) *
27. Kaeru No Tame Ni Kane Wa Naru (GB)
28. Final Fantasy VI (SFC) *
29. Final Fantasy IV (SFC) *
30. Final Fantasy V (SFC)
31. Final Fantasy III (Famicom)
32. Mother 2 (SFC) *
33. Mother 3 (GBA) *
34. Hebereke (Famicom)
35. Donkey Kong Country 2 (SFC)
36. Donkey Kong Country 3 (SFC)
37. Donkey Kong Country (SFC) *

38. Wario's Woods (Famicom)

I got this as a beloved childhood favorite of mine (I would play it in Animal Crossing on the Gamecube) on the Japanese Wii U VC as something to just play to destress in between other games. I ended up REALLY getting into it, and playing all the way through to the end of the "story" mode A, something I thought I'd never do as a kid. I mean I was right in a way, since the only way I beat it was using the VC's save states to effectively have infinite lives, because you either need to be super lucky or a combo GOD to get through the last dozen or two stages, but I did it in the end! The game does technically have more levels in A mode after the first 99 that you see the credits after, but I saw the credits so I'm counting this game as beaten (not that I could even beat those levels in the first place :lol: )

While the game DOES have incremental level select ever 5 levels you reach, it doesn't have saves, so you do effectively have to beat it in one sitting. The VC also helped with that, because with its save state I could just set it down and come back to that same "session" later. However, you also only get one life when you do a level select (whether it's level 1 or 100), so it's no small feat to get through those final stages with the game's normal save system. Level 88 and 98 in particular took me AGES and dozens of tries each, and there's no way I ever could've beaten this on the actual hardware without a Game Genie or something.

Wario's Woods is a puzzle game made by Nintendo, was the last officially licensed game to be released for the NES in North America, and also had a SNES port. I'd describe it as something like "Orcs Must Die meets Puyo Puyo." You play as Toad in a playing field and need to run around it to manipulate the monsters and bombs yourself as the character. Make lines of 3 or more of the same color with at least one bomb, and it destroys everything in that line. Destroy all the monsters on the field and you progress to the next stage. The board also has two modes it switches between. While Birdo is out, you only receive bombs from the top of the screen, but when the timer fills up and Wario comes out, you'll receive both bombs AND new monsters from the top of the screen, and Wario will make the top of the board lower. You can only raise the top of the board back up again by making matches quickly, and you can even make Wario go away faster and Birdo stay longer by making chains.

Additionally, you can make matches with anything Toad is carrying in his hands, and given the way you can pick things up whilst running up a stack to pull it out of the stack, you can even make matches in mid-air in fairly clever ways, so there's a lot of thinking that needs to go on when the stacks get high if you wanna navigate all the different colors you need to destroy. Add on top of this how some monsters can only be destroyed by diagonal matches and how making a match of more than 5 pieces gets you a colored diamond that can remove every monster (but not bomb) of that color if matched with, and things can get REALLY hectic on later stages.

The controls are also pretty complex for a puzzle game too, being that it's somewhat like a platformer. You can run left and right, but also up walls of pieces and the walls of the board itself, but you can't jump. A picks up a whole stack in front of you (if there's room) and will put down the entire stack you're holding. B picks up the single item in front of you, and puts down the single thing lowest in your stack. Finally, pressing Down on the D-pad will move you to the top of the stack you're currently carrying. HOWEVER, in the Famicom version, pressing Down does nothing, and you need to simultaneously press A and B to move to the top of your stack. This makes that move FAR harder, as the timing to do that is very precise, and I died a TON from accidentally putting down what I was holding instead of moving to the top of my stack. 100% avoid the Famicom version of this game, because that little nuance makes the game far harder in a way that is not fun at all.

The game has a very different dynamic than something like Tetris or Puyo Puyo, since you're controlling a character who manipulates the pieces instead of controlling the pieces like in Tetris or a cursor like in Tetris Attack. I really like this, because it means there's more of an emphasis on what you can do in your immediate surroundings, and less emphasis on making giant chains to KO an opponent or something (although the game does have a vs. mode), which I am very very bad at. It means the game ultimately has less competitive depth than something like Puyo Puyo, and the complex controls means it has less ease of play like Tetris, but it's still a fine puzzle game that I find very satisfying to run through casually.

Verdict: Recommended. While I absolutely cannot recommend the Famicom version of this game due to the control issue I mentioned earlier, the NES or SNES versions of this are well worth picking up if you're looking for a different kind of puzzle game. It's far from the best puzzle game out there, sure, but it's certainly one of the more competent Tetris wannabees to come out in the NES and SNES eras.
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Ziggy587
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by Ziggy587 Tue Aug 13, 2019 9:28 am

I've been replying to older posts in this thread. I just didn't have time to keep up with this thread as it was happening, but I've been reading back through it.

PartridgeSenpai wrote:The translation of the English version is quite faithful to the Japanese original, at least as far as my memory serves (and what I occasionally looked up online). Things like Booster's eccentric speech being similarly silly but in a different way (he has his own kind of punny words he uses for himself and switches between SUPER casual and very formal speech a lot), Johnathan Jones speaking much more about the honor of being a manly man's man, and a couple silly naming conventions and puns here and there that didn't make it into the English version. Regardless, the English version is a fantastic companion piece to the Japanese original, in my opinion. Neither is better; they're just both good in similar but different ways.

Dunno if the game was just a lot harder than I remember, or if Mallow and Bowser are just a terrible team combonation, or if the Japanese version is harder than the US version, but the end game was definitely harder than I remember. I still enjoyed it either way though. A nice nostalgic trip down memory lane with a foreign-language twist~


I just want to say, I'm enjoying reading your thoughts! You and a few others are making great posts in this thread that I love reading. And linking all your past reviews make it easy to find your posts!

Speaking of the translation for Mario RPG, there's a hack that uses Google translate to translate all the dialog in the game for some humorous results.

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4490/

Image


I was thinking about replaying this game again on my SNES Classic. I've beat it about 2 or 3 times now, but always with the Princess and usually Gino. For someone who has beaten the game more than once already, would you recommend playing through with Mallow and Bowser? It might be fun to mix it up.

PartridgeSenpai wrote:6. Donkey Kong 64 (N64) *


Oh, man. This is one of those nagging games on my failed-to-beat-list. I got a copy of the game when it launched, and I reached the final boss but never beat it. That always bothered me, and I always wanted to revisit it. A few years ago I finally started a new save file. I got pretty far, too. But then I got the flu for a week and couldn't play the game during that time. I never picked it back up, and I've been regretting not beating it for a second time now!

Anyways, I agree with your opinion of the game. It definitely has a few flaws, but I think overall it's a great game.
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by pook99 Tue Aug 13, 2019 9:49 am

@ziggy: I can't imagine beating mario rpg without peach, I only beat the game once but it just seems impossible without her group healing abilities, or a heck of a lot of grinding.

@flake: an online modern version of puzzle fighter would be amazing, although I am terrible at it, I do feel it is one of the best puzzle games ever made and probably the only one I would put up there with tetris.

@xeograd: nice review of gradius 5, thats been on my bucket list forever, I like that you can keep earning continues the more you play, that is something that seems like it would be motivating in a really hard game, I definitely need to check that out at some point.
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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by prfsnl_gmr Tue Aug 13, 2019 6:28 pm

BoneSnapDeez wrote:
1. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Famicom)
2. Dragon Scroll: Yomigaerishi Maryuu (Famicom)
3. Ninja-kun: Majou no Bouken (Famicom)
4. Hello Kitty World (Famicom)
5. Galaxian (Famicom)
6. Esper Dream 2: Aratanaru Tatakai (Famicom)
7. Ninja Jajamaru-kun (Famicom)
8. Jajamaru no Daibouken (Famicom)
9. Front Line (Famicom)
10. Field Combat (Famicom)
11. Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Famicom)
12. Mississippi Satsujin Jiken: Murder on the Mississippi (Famicom)
13. Space Harrier (Famicom)
14. Geimos (Famicom)
15. Attack Animal Gakuen (Famicom)
16. Sky Destroyer (Famicom)
17. Ripple Island (Famicom)
18. Oishinbo: Kyukyoku no Menu 3bon Syoubu (Famicom)
19. Bird Week (Famicom)
20. Baltron (Famicom)
21. Yie Ar Kung-Fu (Famicom)
22. Challenger (Famicom)
23. Ikki (Famicom)
24. Dough Boy (Famicom)
25. Atlantis no Nazo (Famicom)
26. Bio Senshi Dan: Increaser tono Tatakai (Famicom)
27. Yume Penguin Monogatari (Famicom)
28. King Kong 2: Ikari no Megaton Punch (Famicom)
29. Congo Bongo (Atari 2600)
30. Coconuts (Atari 2600)
31. Arcade Archives: Donkey Kong (Switch eShop)
32. Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu no Hanayome (Super Famicom)
33. Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Super Burger Time (Switch eShop)
34. Fire Fly (Atari 2600)
35. Fire Fighter (Atari 2600)
36. Space Jockey (Atari 2600)
37. Airlock (Atari 2600)
38. Makai Hakkenden Shada (PC Engine)
39. Squeeze Box (Atari 2600)
40. Lagoon (SNES)
41. Atlantis (Atari 2600)
42. Xak III: The Eternal Recurrence (PC Engine CD)
43. Blue Blink (PC Engine)
44. Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys (PC Engine CD)
45. Cally's Caves 3 (Steam)
46. Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet (Steam)
47. Contra (NES)
48. Arcade Archives: Vs. Super Mario Bros. (Switch eShop)
49. Arcade Archives: Moon Cresta (Switch eShop)
50. Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Joe and Mac Caveman Ninja (Switch eShop)
51. Ice Hockey (Atari 2600)

52. Indy 500 (Atari 2600)
53. Video Olympics (Atari 2600)


Indy 500
Image
Image
When I first played Indy 500, a 1977 launch title for the Atari 2600, I crashed headlong into a wall. Second attempt: same result. Just an utter failure. I popped the cartridge out of the console, prepared to cast it aside forever, when some text on the label caught my eye: Use with Driving Controllers. Oh yes, of course, how silly of me, the driving controllers! I searched my archives, drawers of tangled up knotted controllers and their respective wires, and to my shock and amazement I did indeed happen to possess said device: a single lonely driving controller. I have no recollection of ever obtaining such a thing. I think it walked its way into my house (or perhaps it........... drove).

As its title implies, Indy 500 is a (top-down) racing game, a loose adaptation of an earlier arcade title. It requires the aforementioned driving controllers to play properly. At first glance, these seem virtually identical to the well-known Atari paddles (which were used for Kaboom!, Circus Atari, Warlords, Night Driver, Video Olympics, and many other classics). There are three major differences, however. First, the knob of the driving controllers can be turned indefinitely, while the paddles will eventually stop when pulled to the extreme left or right. Second, driving controllers are singular, while the paddles come tethered together, allowing two to plug into a single jack and making four-player games possible. Third, while the paddles were used for a wide array of Atari legends and obscurities alike, the driving controllers are compatible with Indy 500 and nothing else.
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So, like most other early first-party Atari games, Indy 500 consists of multiple game modes: fourteen to be exact. There are your standard one- and two-player races. Note that there are no AI racers in single-player. Instead, one is left to race against the clock, completing as many laps as possible within a minute's time. Write down your best results, and share them with all your friends! With two players, the first to successfully complete twenty-five laps is declared the winner. On the default racetrack, the controls are quite good! Steering with the driving controller is smooth and fluid, and you really "feel" the acceleration when pushing that lone Atari button. Other tracks don't fair quite as well. One, known as the "devil's elbow," contains too many twists and turns and is just a pain to navigate. Additionally, there are icy tracks (why?!) which are just about as terrible as you'd expect. Can we blame Atari for beginning the trend of inserting "ice stages" into otherwise normal games? I think so. One odd thing about Indy 500 is that if a car is continually pressed against a barrier, it will eventually pass through. A car can even pass through the walls that line the screen's edges, and pop out on the other side of the screen. This is theoretically exploitable, and perhaps playing the game "incorrectly" could yield faster lap times.

In addition to the standard races, there are some bonus modes. These are pretty awesome, the highlights of Indy 500, really. First is a game of tag, for two players, where the "it" car (non-flashing) tries to collide with the "non-it" (flashing) automobile. These matches are contested within a wide-open arena, as opposed to a race course, and crossing from one edge of the screen into the other is encouraged. First player to hit 99(!) points wins. Then there's the "crash n' score" game, where players chase an "item" (a white square) within the arena. Crashing into the square earns a player a single point, first to hit fifty wins. Each time the square is hit, it disappears and teleports to another area of the screen. There is actually a single player variant of crash n' score, too, where once again the antagonist is the sixty second clock.

As an early 2600 title, Indy 500 isn't much to look at. The blocky graphics aren't particularly offensive, but some of the color choices are downright horrendous. Certain game modes actually look more legible if the console is switched into black & white. The car sprites are pretty accurate and surprisingly unambiguous. The sound effects are amazing. In the world of Atari, an automobile accelerating resembles the sounds of churning ocean waves. And the crashing and persistent "beeping" is always fantastic. Overall, Indy 500 shows its age. In the late 70s this must have been amazing. The lack of substantial one-player game modes would have been irrelevant, the whole point was to compete with your siblings and friends. Today, Indy 500 feels more than a bit dated and has been superseded by countless other racing titles (even within the confines of the Atari 2600 library itself). Nevertheless, launch titles are always something I find particularly compelling -- especially those that require their own hardware.


Video Olympics
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Atari box art is amazing. I think that goes without saying. One of my favorite covers belongs to that of the 1977 launch title Video Olympics. Just look at that hockey goalie dead center. He's so stoic and cool, even amid all the chaos and cacophony that surrounds him. Basketball players dunking, a soccer goalie making an epic save, an intense volleyball spike, a smooth tennis volley, even some handball action. Boasting a host of sporting events and 50(!) game modes, Video Olympics promises the ultimate sports experience.

Pop that cart in and...........

Plink. Plink. Plink. It's Pong!!! Yes, indeed, the table tennis arcade classic. I always found it odd that Atari never decided to migrate Pong to its console. Turns out it was just hiding in plain sight, in the form of Video Olympics. Note that Sears later released their own version, bearing the arguably more accurate title of Pong Sports. So, where are the sports? Well, contained within this cartridge is vanilla Pong, some beefed-up modifications of Pong, and a host of very loosely-defined "sports games" that play with Pong-esque controls. It's a whole big mess of stuff, and mostly quite fun.

Amusing, of the 50 gameplay modes offered, only 2 are single-player! These are the first two modes the player encounters, and are basic games of Pong against a computer opponent. First one to reach 21 points wins. Video Olympics uses the paddle controllers, and the controls are nice and fluent. I'm not wild about how small the (in-game) Pong paddles are, though I suppose that adds to the challenge. The two single-player modes are differentiated by the ball's behavior. In mode 1, the player can add speed to the ball by pressing the red button as it makes contact with the paddle. In mode 2, pressing said button adds "whammy" which puts a sharper angle on return hits. This whammy seems to be the AI's undoing, and as a result mode 2 feels significantly easier. Following those all-too-brief single-player excursions comes various two- and four- player games of Pong, some of which see the players controlling multiple paddles.
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Flick the Atari's "game select" switch all the way to 13 to get the first taste of a more familiar sport. Soccer is almost recognizable as the real thing, complete with a bright green field and two goals. In soccer's most basic mode, two players each control two kickers who move in tandem. One is placed near the goal, making it the de facto goalie. It's deceptively entertaining. And shooting for the small goals, as opposed to a single side of the screen, adds a whole new layer of depth. Once again - and this is true of the other sports - the speed and whammy ball attributes can be chosen. Game 18 (still soccer) adds a little wrinkle to the formula, allowing the player to press the button to "hold" the ball briefly. Following a cluster of slightly-different two- and four-player soccer games comes a thing called "Foozpong." This is like a weird variant of foosball, apparently still played on the soccer field, with each player simultaneously controlling two entire columns of kickers. It's almost too chaotic for its own good.

Before Activision gave us Ice Hockey, we had the Video Olympics version. Hockey here plays a bit like soccer, with players shooting for an onscreen goal as opposed to the screen's edge. It's a touch less frantic, with each player only controlling one hockey player by default. In fact, the game feels like a volley between two hockey goalies, which is somewhat amusing. This is the best looking game on the cartridge; that baby blue ice is so soothing. After hockey is a brief trip back to the world of table tennis Pong, with something called "quadrapong." Based on the 1974 arcade game, these two four-player modes showcase four paddles (two moving horizontally, and two vertically) and four goals. It's quite a treat; now to find three friends who enjoy the Atari 2600.

Handball is a strange one, and probably the least enjoyable part of the collection. Players occupy the same side of the screen and the ball bounces within a closed arena. Players are assigned alternating turns, and hitting the ball at the proper time results in a point gained. Beginning with volleyball, the game now adopts a side-view (as opposed to top-down). Here players try to score by launching their balls over the net. The red button now adopts a new function: it activates a jump. It's a little jarring; given the Atari's limited capabilities in those early days, "jumping" causes a paddle sprite to instantly disappear and then reappear higher up onscreen. Basketball is like a more polished volleyball. Players attempt to launch the ball into the opponent's basket, and mode switching will allow for jumping or ball-holding. The ball is allowed to hit the floor, naturally, and the "bounce" physics here are excellent.

This is quite the assortment of games. The inclusion of 50 is undoubtedly excessive. However, there are at least a dozen or so that are rock-solid. Not everyone will enjoy Video Olympics. But I imagine that anyone who enjoys Pong will find plenty to love.


These reviews are amazing. Thank you for this, Bone.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by PartridgeSenpai Tue Aug 13, 2019 6:53 pm

Ziggy587 wrote:I just want to say, I'm enjoying reading your thoughts! You and a few others are making great posts in this thread that I love reading. And linking all your past reviews make it easy to find your posts!

Speaking of the translation for Mario RPG, there's a hack that uses Google translate to translate all the dialog in the game for some humorous results.

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4490/

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I was thinking about replaying this game again on my SNES Classic. I've beat it about 2 or 3 times now, but always with the Princess and usually Gino. For someone who has beaten the game more than once already, would you recommend playing through with Mallow and Bowser? It might be fun to mix it up.


Thanks! I have a lot of fun writing these, so I'm glad other people are having fun reading them ^w^

That translation seems amazing :lol:

I think it was Popo who pointed out to me that Bowser & Mallow is fairly definitively the worst possible team you can have because both of them have such poor survivability and questionable damage output, you spend most of your time flailing away at enemies and reviving them :lol: . Playing through the game with different teams is certainly good fun, but with those two specifically, I find it hard to recommend :P

Ziggy587 wrote:
PartridgeSenpai wrote:6. Donkey Kong 64 (N64) *


Oh, man. This is one of those nagging games on my failed-to-beat-list. I got a copy of the game when it launched, and I reached the final boss but never beat it. That always bothered me, and I always wanted to revisit it. A few years ago I finally started a new save file. I got pretty far, too. But then I got the flu for a week and couldn't play the game during that time. I never picked it back up, and I've been regretting not beating it for a second time now!

Anyways, I agree with your opinion of the game. It definitely has a few flaws, but I think overall it's a great game.


It's a good time! It's not exactly the shortest game in the world, but the fact that you only actually need half of the total golden bananas in the game to beat it makes the whole thing a lot more reasonable to me if you're just going for a normal, non 101% completion rate.
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by BoneSnapDeez Tue Aug 13, 2019 8:37 pm

prfsnl_gmr wrote:These reviews are amazing. Thank you for this, Bone.


Thanks! I love analyzing the old Atari greats.
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